Whatchamacallit

Kcal 230 Fat 12g Fat (Sat) 9g Carbs 28g (per bar)

You know what it’s like when you know what you want to say,
but just can’t think of the word to say it. There are many phrases that we come
up with as a substitute, such as ‘thingamebob’ and ‘whosamekiff’. It appears
that in 1978, the Hershey Company suffered a similar sort of brain freeze, as
they ended up naming their next chocolate bar Whatchamacallit. This lack of
creativity does not bode well, for if they can’t be bothered to think of a
proper name, does that lack of effort translate into the recipe as well?

Name aside, Whatchamacallit does have a rather fun retro
wrapper, but not one that elicits any confidence in quality. Unfortunately,
this is only too evident upon inspecting the ingredients. Back in 2008 (just
after Jim’s review), Hershey decided to change the recipe of this bar so as to
reduce production costs. In doing so they swapped cocoa butter for a concerning
variety of partially hydrogenated vegetable oils. Also listed on the back of
the wrapper is high fructose corn syrup and something called ‘diglyceride’,
which, after looking up, turns out to be an emulsifying food additive that
combines fat and water together. Sound delicious doesn’t it?

Given the name and confusing ingredients, you will be forgiven
for asking, exactly what a Whatchamacallit is. Underneath a thin layer of
chocolate (if you can call it that) is a filling of caramelised puffed rice
with peanut flavouring. As you might expect by now, the waxy chocolate was
absolutely tasteless. The caramel provided the usual sweetness, along with a
slightly salty aftertaste. What is essentially a Rice Krispies filling had
little self-flavour and a cardboard texture.

The merging of crispy rice with caramel brought chewiness to
the bar, which was really its only saving grace. In conclusion, if you want to
come up with your own name for the Whatchamacallit, may I suggest ‘Awasteofmoney’?